1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the area of network router and switch mechanical design and specifically to a router or switch design where the IO ports are accessible from the top or bottom of the router or switch chassis.
2. Description of the Related Art
Routers are commercially available in thin form factors that can be mounted horizontally into a rack that has the capacity to hold two or more routers mounted one on top of the other. This stacked arrangement is a convenient means for fitting a large number of routers in the smallest possible floor area, or from another perspective, creates the smallest possible footprint for a large number of routers. Routers that are employed for such stacked arrangements typically exhibit a relatively small height dimension or are relatively thin. The standard form factors used for such stackable routers include ½ RU, 1RU, 2RU and 3RU form factors, where a 1U form factor represents a router chassis that has a physical dimension of 1.7 inches high, 17.32 inches wide and 16.73 inches deep.
Routers or switches implemented in the ½ U to 3RU form factor typically include one or more printed circuit boards oriented in the plane of the router chassis side with the largest surface area, which in this case is the top or bottom of the router. All of the electronic components necessary to receive information from a network, process the information and to transmit the information back to the network are included on the printed circuit board. These electronic components are connected via signal lines to IO port connectors that are conveniently positioned on the front or back of the router chassis and which are designed to accept various types of communication cables over which network traffic is transmitted. Network administrators can easily and conveniently configure the routers or switches by connecting the network cables to the IO port connectors located on the front or back of the router chassis. Unfortunately, positioning the IO port connectors on the front of a router with such a thin form factor limits the number of IO port connectors that can be positioned on the front of the router. One solution to the IO port density problem is to position a high density IO port connector on the front of the router and use a cable to connect the IO port on the connector to a patch panel or break out box to break out the ports on the high density connector. Although such an arrangement does increase the IO port connector density on the router, it does so at the expense of adding additional cabling, an additional device (breakout box/patch panel) and additional cost.